Are you happy with who you are?

I want you to take 5 minutes and pause, ask yourself, Am I happy with who I am? Sit in silence while you hear yourself think of the answers to this question. You may answer with a resounding yes, a quiet ‘pretty good’ or sit there quietly conjuring up a multitude of other questions. Why am I not happy? How did I get here? The answer to this question is not what matters most, it’s rather that you actually ask the question.

Modern day life is so busy. It squeezes us for attention, productivity, excellence in every way or makes you feel bad if you aren’t excelling. The days also just roll into each other and even if you are intentional about what you do, you can still find yourself thinking, ‘what’s this all about? Why am I trying so hard? Did this stuff really matter?

The wellness space will tell you that happiness is not as important as joy because joy is prolonged whereas happiness is fleeting however if there is no happiness how do you get joy? If you don’t check in with yourself and ask ‘am I happy’ how do you generate joy? I’d argue that you cannot.

Joy for some is contentment but for me contentment is acceptance. It’s not as fulfilling as joy is. We all have to accept things in our life (like when days feel a little ground- hoggish) but the people, things, work that makes us feel prolonged happiness must not be part of those things. When we focus on what we do versus being happy with who we are we can find ourselves at a disconnect.

When we come back to asking ourselves, ‘am I happy with who I was today? Am I happy with who I was this week?’ we start to think about how we showed up, what joy we chose to bring into a life, how we handled the shitty parts, the people who tested us. The 5 minutes of quiet reflection gives us accountability and drive for change. It helps us to understand we are in the driver’s seat of our own life & how we show up really matters. The more often we ask ourselves, ‘am I happy with who I am?’ the better our life will be.